{"id":28880,"date":"2018-01-24T17:09:02","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T17:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/01\/24\/trumps-nuke-strategy-will-fuel-an-arms-race-say-hasc-dems\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:30:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:30:06","slug":"trumps-nuke-strategy-will-fuel-an-arms-race-say-hasc-dems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/congress\/2018\/01\/24\/trumps-nuke-strategy-will-fuel-an-arms-race-say-hasc-dems\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s nuke strategy will fuel an arms race, say House Democrats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Two key House Armed Services Committee Democrats are saying President Donald Trump\u2019s newly drafted nuclear weapons strategy<\/a> will feed an international arms race and increase the risk of a catastrophic nuclear war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HASC ranking member Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., said Wednesday the strategy would add to the \u201ccompletely unreasonable\u201d $1.2 trillion price tag<\/a> for modernizing the nation\u2019s nuclear arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA nuclear posture that implements the President\u2019s view that his nuclear button is \u2018bigger and more powerful\u2019 is short-sighted and ill-advised,\u201d Smith said in a statement. \u201cHow President Trump plans to pay for these programs remains a mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith\u2019s remark is a play on Trump\u2019s recent Twitter boast in the war of words between the president and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pentagon\u2019s Nuclear Posture Review is expected to be released next week. But a leaked draft called for investments in low-yield, tactical nuclear weapons<\/a>, and lawmakers received a classified briefing<\/a> Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith said the strategy would draw scarce resources from conventional war-fighting needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe administration\u2019s recommendations will not increase our security \u2014 they will instead feed a nuclear arms race, undermine strategic stability by lowering the threshold for nuclear use, and increase the risk of miscalculation that could precipitate a nuclear war,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

California Democratic Rep. John Garamendi, a consistent voice for nuclear restraint on the HASC, saw the nuclear strategy, coupled with the recent National Defense Strategy, as goading Russia and China into a new level of nuclear arms race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reconciling costly nuclear modernization efforts with a Republican-led tax cut estimated to cost $1.5 trillion in revenue, Garamendi said, would create \u201cserious competition for money within the Department of Defense \u2014 and between the department, the State Department and [the Department of] Homeland Security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTax cuts were more important,\u201d Garamendi told Defense News on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The better alternative, said Garamendi, would be to strengthen America\u2019s alliances, its economy, international trade and diplomacy with Russia and China. He also questioned the National Defense Strategy\u2019s de-emphasis of counterterrorism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo take our eyes off of terrorism is a mistake,\u201d Garamendi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t